Typical inductors may include shaped cores, including a shield core and drum core, U core and I core, E core and I core, and other matching shapes. The inductors typically have a conductive wire wrapped around the core or a clip. The wrapped wire is commonly referred to as a coil and is wound on the drum core or other bobbin core directly. Each end of the coil may be referred to as a lead and is used for coupling the inductor to an electrical circuit. Discrete cores may be bound together through an adhesive.
With advancements in electronic packaging, the trend has been to manufacture power inductors having miniature structures. Thus, the core structure must have lower and lower profiles so that they may accommodate the modern electronic devices, some of which may be slim or have a very thin profile. Manufacturing inductors having the low profile has caused manufactures to encounter many difficulties, thereby making the manufacturing process expensive.
For example, as the components become smaller and smaller, difficulty has arisen due to the nature of the components being hand wound. These hand wound components provide for inconsistencies in the product themselves. Another encountered difficulty includes the shape cores being very fragile and prone to core cracking throughout the manufacturing process. An additional difficulty is that the inductance is not very consistent due to the gap deviation between the two discrete cores, including but not limited to drum cores and shielded cores and U cores and I cores, during assembly. A further difficulty is that the DC resistance (“DCR”) is not consistent due to uneven winding and tension during the winding process. These difficulties represent examples of just a few of the many difficulties encountered while attempting to manufacture inductors having a miniature structure.
Manufacturing processes for inductors, like other components, have been scrutinized as a way to reduce costs in the highly competitive electronics manufacturing business. Reduction of manufacturing costs is particularly desirable when the components being manufactured are low cost, high volume components. In a high volume component, any reduction in manufacturing cost is, of course, significant. It may be possible that one material used in manufacturing may have a higher cost than another material, but the overall manufacturing cost may be less by using the more costly material because the reliability and consistency of the product in the manufacturing process is greater than the reliability and consistency of the same product manufactured with the less costly material. Thus, a greater number of actual manufactured products may be sold, rather than being discarded. Additionally, it also is possible that one material used in manufacturing a component may have a higher cost than another material, but the labor savings more than compensates for the increase in material costs. These examples are just a few of the many ways for reducing manufacturing costs.
It has become desirable to provide a magnetic component of increased efficiency and improved manufacturability without increasing the size of the components and occupying an undue amount of space, especially when used on circuit board applications. It also has become desirable to lessen the amount of manual manufacturing steps involved and automating more of the steps in the manufacturing process so that more consistent and reliable products may be produced.